Traumatic injury to the hands and fingers, including deep lacerations to the palmer or gripping side thereof, occur with high incidence due to relatively excessive use and dependence on the hand for every day tasks. In short, the hand and fingers are extremely prone to injury which oftentimes result in diminished range of motion, strength and isotonic muscle contraction capability.
The subject invention provides a means for performing exercises for the active rehabilitation of injured fingers which were not completely incapacitated by injury or surgery. It is to be distinguished from those passive movement devices intended for those who have suffered a complete loss of finger movement and require external forces to accomplish the required physical therapy.
Heretofore, a plurality of exercise and rehabilitation devices for the hand and fingers have been developed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,582 issued Aug. 29, 1995 to Brown and U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,490 issued Sep. 5, 1995 to Fula, et al. teach recent developments in such hand and finger exercise devices and summarize the state of the relevant art as of 1995, summarizing a myriad of prior art references.
Despite the great variety of rehabilitative devices available, however, there remains a need for a device capable of providing the patient with a means of isolating each finger joint for the purpose of improving, through active exercises, the scope of their flexion and extension capabilities. Additionally, there remains a need for a device capable of providing a means for both isotonic and isometric finger contraction exercises for muscle and tendon rehabilitation. The above device should also accomplish these objectives without the attachment of peripheral devices to the digits themselves which may be sensitive and fragile after surgery.